Something extremely rare is happening in the typically volatile cryptocurrency markets on Friday. The three largest cryptocurrencies, bitcoin (BTC-USD), Ethereum (ETH-USD), and Ripple (XRP-USD) have all changed by less than 2% over the past 24 hours. Just to give you an idea of how volatile they usually are, I've been writing daily updates on cryptocurrencies for about a month, and this is the first time that has happened.
After a massive crash early in the week, cryptocurrencies rebounded with a vengeance on Thursday, and now seem to have stabilized. Here's the latest price action from the cryptocurrency markets, and a recap of the week's wild ride.
Image source: Getty Images.
Today's cryptocurrency prices
Here's a look at the five largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, and how much each has changed over the past 24 hours, as well as the weekly highs and lows.
|
Cryptocurrency Name (Code) |
Price in U.S. Dollars |
Day's Change |
Weekly High |
Weekly Low |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Bitcoin (BTC-USD) |
$11,238 |
(1.5%) |
$14,186 |
$9,371 |
|
Ethereum (ETH-USD) |
$1,025.20 |
(1.4%) |
$1,374 |
$784.20 |
|
Ripple (XRP-USD) |
$1.50 |
0.5% |
$1.86 |
$0.90 |
|
Bitcoin Cash (BCH-USD) |
$1,731.90 |
(4.7%) |
$1,852.50 |
$1,677 |
|
Cardano (ADA-USD) |
$0.62 |
(5.2%) |
$0.84 |
$0.46 |
Data source: Investing.com. Prices and daily changes as of Jan. 19, 2018 at 1:45 p.m. EST; prices are rounded to the nearest cent where appropriate.
As you can see, although the major cryptocurrencies are rather quiet today, there have been some big swings. Bitcoin (BTC-USD) traded in a roughly $4,800 range throughout the week, and Ripple's (XRP-USD) weekly high was more than double its low. Ethereum (ETH-USD), which recently hit its all-time high, spent much of the week below the key $1,000 level.
In a nutshell, the cause of the volatility was the prospect of new government regulations on cryptocurrencies. Specifically, it was reported that major cryptocurrency hotspot South Korea was considering a bill that would ban cryptocurrency trading, and China expressed its intention to further crack down on centralized trading activities.
A major cryptocurrency crashed this week -- but investors were warned
One other major cryptocurrency story that may have added to the volatility was the closing of the BitConnect (BCC-USD) exchange.
BitConnect is a cryptocurrency lending service. The short version of the concept is that users could convert bitcoin into BitConnect's currency (BCC-USD), which would then be lent out and would earn the lenders enormous returns – up to 40% per month. As a result, the BCC currency shot up to a high of $479.30 on Dec. 28, 2017 and was more recently trading in the $300 ballpark.
Well, on Tuesday BitConnect (BCC-USD) announced that it was shutting down its lending service immediately and would also close its exchange service within five days. As you might expect, the currency fell off a cliff, bottoming out below $7. It has slightly rebounded to $29 in the days since, but it's safe to assume that many BitConnect investors are sitting on massive losses.
To be fair, BitConnect had been accused of running a Ponzi scheme on several occasions, and by several highly regarded industry experts.
Even so, this incident reinforces the importance of doing due diligence before investing in any "up-and-coming" cryptocurrency, blockchain-focused business, or initial coin offering (ICO). And it's also important to realize that no matter how much research you do about a cryptocurrency investment, the cryptocurrency industry is still very much in its "Wild West" phase, and it's entirely possible that you could lose your entire investment.
